With a time of 1:20.161, Charles Leclerc took pole position at Ferrari headquarters at the Italian GP. Max Verstappen was second in qualifying but has a five-place penalty due to engine changes. Third Saint, who will start from the last places.

Charles Leclerc missed his best performance and unexpected three-day best of 1:20.161 for the end of qualifying – and that was without Carlos Sainz needing to give him an advantage as the Spaniard will start from the last places.

The 24-year-old Monegasque showed, like Saint in his first year on his first attempt in Q3, that the Ferrari has significantly improved its performance at a low-lift track, compared to the more than six-tenths of a second he had his counterpart Spa, in the qualifying tests of the Belgian GP.

Given the Red Bull RB18’s dominance on this type of circuit, it was an admirable turnaround from Scuderia that brings renewed interest to tomorrow’s Italian GP. But to meet fans’ expectations, Ferrari will have to find solutions to the problems that have worsened it in the last three races from Saturday to Sunday, mainly related to tire management.

For Max Verstappen, the fastest time he set on the middle section of the Monza circuit on his final lap in Q3 was unexpected as the other two sections of the circuit are the fast ones, favoring top speed and the RB18’s dominance. With his time he seemed to be heading for pole position but lost time in the final section of the track.

In the end, he explained this unexpected phenomenon himself: that RBR deliberately chose higher boost settings in view of the decisions it made for the race: “We’ve opted for a little more push for these two weeks – it might not be the best for round one, but it will probably make us very strong for tomorrow. I think we’re going to have an interesting fight.”said the Dutchman.

But before that battle comes today’s fan celebrations for a Ferrari’s pole position at Monza, the company’s 75th anniversary and the Italian circuit’s 100th anniversary. “It’s incredible”, said Leclerc, a winner with Scuderia at Monza in 2019.

“It wasn’t easy qualifying, I knew the car had momentum, but we didn’t manage to get everything where it needed to be. But I’m happy with the last lap, I hope we can do it tomorrow like we did in 2019. I took a lot more risks, I knew it was the last lap, I gave it my all and it went well.”closed the Monegasque.

Like Verstappen, Saints, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton, who finished behind him, will all receive penalties at tomorrow’s start for replacing mechanical parts. As a result, Mercedes’ George Russell will start alongside Leclerc on the front row. The official starting grid will be published by the organizer.

Mercedes won the battle of the mid-range teams behind the top two, but this time they were further from Ferrari and RBR than at Zandvoort – a high-boost track that suited the W13. This fight too will come down to tire management as Ferrari have struggled in this area lately from Saturday to Sunday while Mercedes have been improving rapidly.

Hamilton and Russell struggled to get and keep the soft rubber at the ideal temperature today so they were almost 1.4 inches from Leclerc – a huge gap. Behind them, Lando Norris was joined this time by an improved Daniel Ricciardo in Q3, while Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly took over 9th place from Fernando Alonso, who called off his last-ditch effort. Gasli had beaten his Alpine compatriot Esteban Ocon by 0.07 in Q2 to advance into Q3.

Ocon was followed by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Nick de Vries in 13th place. The young Dutchman, champion with Mercedes in Formula E, was called up urgently by Williams to replace Alex Albon, who was hospitalized with appendicitis.

The Dutchman performed well on his debut in a cockpit designed for the much larger Albon, utilizing the FW44’s aerodynamic superiority on low-lift courses, although missing his second attempt at a top ten finish , as he locked his brakes before the second chicane.

We remind you that with the changes in the mechanical parts, Verstappen and Ocon have a penalty of 5 places, Perez 10 places, Schumacher, Bottas and Magnussen 15 places, while Sainz, Hamilton and Tsunoda will fall at the end of the start.

The official line-up for tomorrow’s game, which starts at 16:00, will be announced by the organizers.